The Wraith's Hand
by BookZombie
Summary: Todd is wounded while a prisoner in Atlantis. Keller steps up to the challenge and helps him.


(The regular disclaimer. This is a fanfiction. I do not claim any ownership over the Stargate universe. This little story is just written for my own amusement and as a tribute to a great setting. All honors to the ones which have actually created the Stargate universe and it's characters.)

The Wraith's Hand

Long streams of computer code flashed over the screen. The wraith's yellow, slitted eyes followed it, his face expressing his displeasure at what he saw. Someplace there was an error, his code worked fine one moment, then got to a certain point and just broke down.  
"Can you make any sense of it? This should work, why is it breaking down like that."  
The creature mushed, half to himself, half to the human male sitting across the other side of the workbench from him, staring at his own screen. From the look on Rodney's face however the human was having no better luck then himself.  
"There is and error someplace...one moment, let me try something."  
The human said and his fingers danced across the keyboard. The wraith soon saw the result of Rodney's efforts flash across the screen in front of him, but while the new code corrected the old problems, two new ones come with it, making the code just as useless. Rodney discovered this about five seconds after the wraith had and the sound of frustration he made was quite amusing.  
"We need to rewrite this entire section."  
Rodney commented with a sigh. The wraith just nodded. The human was right. Rewriting the section of code would take several hours of extra work, but at least it would sort of the problems which was currently frustrating both men.

Before any rewriting of code could begin however the door to the lab opened and a second human entered the room, this one was tall, with tan skin, and long brown hair in dreads down his back.  
"You are needed in the gate room Rodney, chevron five won't lock. No one is getting in or out and we are expecting three teams back today."  
Rodney sigh and looked up, annoyed at the interruption.  
"Can not someone else do it? I am kind of in the middle of something here. There must be someone else on this base with the brain capacity to fix your gate problem? How am I supposed to ever finish this project if you do not let me work on it in peace?"  
The larger man just shrugged.  
"I do not know, I was just sent to get you."  
Rodney sigh again.  
"Very well. I am on my way."  
Turning to the wraith the human scientist gave a hasty smile.  
"We will have to continue this later."  
The wraith looked up. Truth to be told he did not want to go back to his cell yet. He had for once been allowed to work with his hands free, and while rewriting the code was time consuming and boring work, at least he would have something to do save stare at the bars of his cage like cell.  
"Go fix your gate...Rodney, I will rewrite the code, it is mostly just routine work anyway, and it is not like I have much other things to do around here so we might as well use the time somewhat effectively."  
The wraith hesitating using the human's name, it felt strange on his lips to just throw a name into a conversation like that, and even stranger to give it so freely as the humans did. It seamed to be the first thing they did when meeting someone for the first time, blurt out their names as if it was a thing with no value or meaning, to be shared with all. In his millennia long life the wraith had only shared his name a handful of times, and only then to those he knew and trusted beyond all others. But it was different for humans, for them a name was just a handle, a way to identify to whom someone was speaking, but they did seam to respond better when it was included in a sentence addressing them.

The wraith could see Rodney considering his offer, it was a change to get out of hoers of boring work, and after a few seconds he nodded.  
"All right, just remember the guards will be watching you closely, do not try anything, and do try to keep your humor to yourself, without me here to soothe the guards tempers you would have been shot weeks ago, and it would be a shame to return here to find you shot dead on the floor."  
The wraith grinned.  
"A shame indeed."  
He agreed as he watched Rodney head for the door.  
"Eh Ronon, give our guest those computer tablets over there would you? He will need them for his task and I do not want him rummaging around my desk looking for what he might need."  
Rodney had stopped in the doorway and pointed to a small stack of data pads which balanced on the edge of his cluttered desk. Ronon as the other human was called it turns out, again with the names, grunted his displeasure of going anywhere near the wraith but did as asked, picking up the data pads from the desk and handing them to the prisoner. The wraith which was again absorbed by his work hardly glanced up but just stretched out a thin, pale green hand for the pads, that it turns out, was a mistake.

The wraith felt three very different things then, in short succession of each other, first, the hard, cold surface of the pads against his fingers, the expected sensation, then warm soft skin, accidently the wraith had touched the human male's hand while reaching for the data pads, then blinding pain as the man reacted to the wraith's touch and moved with impressive speed for a human, reaching for the dagger at his belt. The wraith had already begun to move his hand back, muttering an apology as he did so, but it was to late, and Ronon's blade sliced deeply into the creature's plam, into his feeding organ.

Rodney's mind was already on whatever could be wrong with chevron five when he heard the wraith scream. It was an inhuman sound, several tones came out of the creature at once, making the scream sound more like some otherworldly screech then something which should come from the throat of a physical being.  
"Ronon..leave him alone, you will get your change to kill him when this deal with the replicators is all over but right now he is our ally."  
Rodney say turning around, rightly assuming Ronon had done something to the wraith.  
"Play nice..."  
Rodney's jaw dropped open when he saw the scene in the room behind him. He had expected...well he did not know what he had expected but not this. The wraith sat on the floor clutching his right hand, greenish black blood oozing from it to form a dark pool in his lap. The data pads lay strewn about him on the floor. Ronon stood over the wraith with a dagger drawn, glaring at the creature.  
"What the hell happened!"  
Rodney said, still in shock of what he saw before him.  
"He touched me, while reaching for the pads."  
Ronon said as if that explained everything.  
"And you believed that his hand accidentally brushing yours while you where handing him some data pads meant he was trying to suck the life out of you? Look around Ronon, look at the guards, if he had tried anything they would have shot him, it would be suicide."  
Ronon shrugs at Rodney's words, he saw the sense in them and he wiped wraith blood of his dagger on his sleeve and put the weapon back in his belt.  
"You may be right, I over reacted, but it is not like it is a big deal or anything, he will heal Rodney, he will be back at his work station before we are out of this room..."  
Rodney had walked over the the wounded wraith, yellow eyes full of agony met his. Rodney shook his head.  
"No Ronon...I do not think he will be. I think you really hurt him."  
Kneeling down beside the wraith Rodney worriedly noted how the creature's head was leaned back against the workbench, his sharp teeth gritted. His skin color had changed from soft green to almost completely white. The wraith was in excruciating pain. Rodney remembered how this wraith had collapsed from hunger, he had not made a sound then even if wraith found hunger to be agonizing, at most his voice had been a little strained when Rodney had asked him if he was alright and he had answered no. But now, now the wraith which could silently endure hunger sat shivering on the floor, in to much pain to even stand up.  
"Go get Sheppard Ronon, it is his wraith, he will know what to do. Go!"

John Sheppard had been enjoying one of Atlantis's simple pleasures. Polluting the ocean with countless golf balls shot out from one of the cities baloneys, a soft breeze brushing his face, the Stargate acting up had given John a rare chance to relax and unwind while he waited for Rodney to fix the chevron so he could get a planned mission to new Althos under way, but John's quiet afternoon had been interrupted by Ronon telling him that his wraith had been hurt. Why do everyone refer to him as my wraith? John thinks as he follows Ronon back to Rodney's lab. It was not like he owned the life sucking monster, he just happened to have somewhat friendly relations with him. He needs a name John thinks, something other than Sheppard's wraith. But that was a concern for another day. Entering the lab John almost gasped when he saw the pale creature on the floor, the wraith was still just sitting there, the insides of his feeding organ spilling out into the palm of his hand.  
"He is not regenerating properly."  
Rodney informed Shepperd as the young man knelt down besides his sometimes friend to take a closer look on the wraith's wounded hand.  
"No...the cut is to deep, the wound is to severe, he needs medical attention."  
John said, studying the cut, the wraith tried to turn away, a look of shame mixing with the pain in his eyes. John realized they knew little of wraith culture, but he had a feeling he himself migh have exactly that look in his eyes if he had hurt his privates and was told he had to have a doctor look at it.  
"It do not make you any less of a...eh wraith, and you still have a good hand to suck people's life out of them with, and I am sure the doc will fix you right up. Now here we go, can you stand?"  
John said in what he hoped was a at least partly comforting tone as he helped the wraith to his feet.  
"Yes...I can stand."  
The wraith said weakly as he was dragged to his feet, the first thing he had said since Ronon cut him. John begun to lead the wraith to the infirmary, and he noted with some concern how much of the creature's weigh he had to carry as he supported him.

It had been a slow day for Dr Keller. She had bandaged a sprained wrist, adjusted one of the resident scientist's daily doze of insulin, and otherwise there had been little to occupy the young woman save paperwork. Jennifer was just about to sit down with a cup of coffee when the door to the infirmary slides open, allowing a most unusual party to stumble into the room. John Sheppard was supporting the base's wraith prisoner, trying to keep the creature on it's feet, and leading the it to a bed, a fretting Rodney and two trigger happy soldiers followed the pair. Dr Keller jumped of her chair and looks at each of the men in the room with wide eyes.  
"What is going on?"  
"Turns out the wraith is not so indestructible as prior assumed."  
Says a voice from the door as a sixth member of the strange party entered the room. Ronon. Jennifer got over her surprise long enough to smile to the large man. Ronon smiled back and added.  
"I accidentally cut him."  
"Not much of an accident."  
Mutters Rodney sourly.  
"It do not matter if it was an accident or not, what matters is that the wound do not seam to be closing, and our green friend here do not look so good, and while he is a wraith, he is useful for now, can you help him doc?"  
John interrupted. Jennifer looked from the wraith to John and back again.  
"Help him? But I know nothing about his physiology, and...it seamed it is his hand which is hurt...and is that not where...where..."  
"Yes that is where the organ I use to suck the life out of people is located."  
The wraith said in a tired voice.  
"I am not expecting you to tend it, just curtirize the wound to stop the bleeding. I will be fine."  
Jennifer shook her head.  
"No, you are my patient, I will do what I can, but you will have to direct me on what to do...and please do not eat me okey?"  
The wraith looked a little surprised as Jennifer washed her hands and pulled on thin latex gloves.  
"I can not eat you woman, at least not with this hand, the feeding organ is damaged, that is why I can not heal the wound."  
Jennifer motioned for a frightened nurse to bring her tray of instruments over as she sat down on a chair next to the wraith's bed.  
"It is never as bad as it looks, now let me see your hand."

The wraith was earnestly surprised, he had offered the leader of this expedition his hand back when he was first captured, mostly as a joke, but still, and the blond woman had not dared to take it even with a escort of heavily armed guards to watch the inhuman prisoner's every move. But this little slip of a healer sent the guards, and the rest of the men to the other side of the room so she could work in peace and she currently had two thin fingers buried inside the slitted opening in his palm. The pain was excruciating, the wraith had to focus to stay conscious, but still, he had to admire the little human female's courage. Dr Keller was studying a diagram on the computer over a wraith's feeding organ and comparing it to what she felt inside the slender opening.  
"I think I have found the problem, there is a deep gash here."  
The Doctor pointed towards the computer screed to a part of the diagram. The wraith nodded, he had suspected as much, the hook like beak which was used to cut into his victim's chest had been torn loose and had bitten into the main node used for transferring the stolen life force to the wraith's body. The damage was probably irreparable. But then as the wraith rarely needed medical attention their knowledge on this field was far less than that of the more frail humans. Perhaps there was hope. The doctor pulled her fingers out of the wraith's feeding organ.  
"I can try to operate, but I will have to put you under."  
The woman said, wiping black blood of her hands onto the towel the same terrified nurse which had brought her the instrument tray held out to her. The wraith shook his head.  
"I doubt your anesthetics will work on me human."  
The doctor, so innocent looking, grinned.  
"Oh I was just planning on stunning you."  
The wraith looked at the woman for a few seconds then he barked out a throaty laugh. Crafty, yes he liked this female. Nodding his consent he watched Dr Keller weave John Shepperd forward. The wraith was still chuckling when the first jolt hit him, when the third shot from the stunner struck home his world went black.

The wraith woke up in his cell, slowly he sat up. His hand throbbed and ached. Looking down the wraith found his right hand wrapped in gauze. Slowly unwrapping the bandage the creature's eyes widened in surprise at the evidence of the female doctor's skill. His hand was swollen, the feeding slit was puffy and sore, the opening which should be only a thin line on his palm was slightly open from swelling and had a dark green color where it should be soft pink, but the feeding slit was working. The wraith could feel that, he could have used the organ if he had wanted to and had a suitable victim in his cell, and more importantly, the doctor had got his own regenerative abilities jump started again and the feeding slit was healing, in a few days it would be back to normal. The wraith lay down again, his species did not sleep but they did rest, and he was tired. Closing his eyes the wraith considered the events of the day. They had been painful, but he had gained a new respect for the expedition's chief of medical. And the captive wraith vowed to learn more about the woman as his mind drifted away into the meditative state which was the closest thing his species came to sleep. 


End file.
